Sidd Munjal, a third-year economics student, former child actor and candidate for the 2026-2027 Undergraduate Students Association Council, or USAC, presidency, has considerable visions for the future of students at UCLA. He is running on various platforms, ranging from academics to steadying tuition to international student support.
When the time came, UCLA was the obvious choice for Munjal, who was born and raised in Los Angeles. He revealed that his own personal development at the university has been a factor in his decision to run. Munjal said, “I always did want to go here. My freshman year was very good. I learned a lot really quickly. Because obviously, when a lot of people come here, they’re still kids. UCLA taught me a learning curve in how to deal with people and how to interact with people that you normally don’t. You realize you can’t always appease everybody.” Over the past three years, UCLA has given him a lesson on sociability and self-control. Now, he is running for USAC president and brings visions based on his conversations with students, which he argues are within reach and which he is prepared to advocate for.
It was the very students who shared their frustrations with Munjal, encouraging him to run at all. He said, “A lot of people told me I should run because the type of person that should run is the type of person that doesn’t want to run.” His candidacy followed commendable thought and motivation from peers, whose challenges and demands he insists on representing.
Munjal expressed that he understands the inconveniences of students and wishes to put pressure on the administration to make changes. Specifically, he is campaigning on ending aggregate grade curving, cataloguing class syllabi and public grading breakdowns. Using Math 31B as an example, he said, “Even regarding all the different means and medians, the way they do it is that they’ll take all the classes and they’ll give a standard mean/median regardless of the difference in how the instruction was given in that class. The way that curving should be done is by class-by-class basis.”
Cataloguing the syllabi would allow students to access the syllabus for a course at the time of enrollment. Course syllabi would be publicly accessible via MyUCLA’s class planning section. Munjal explained that this development would provide students with a greater sense of ease.
Munjal discussed these propositions and more during the April 29 USAC debate that took place in De Neve Auditorium alongside presidential candidates Jayha Buhs-Jackson and Chris Vance. Munjal made clear his introduction to the institution has all been fairly new. “I’ve never been in USAC. I’m a complete outsider right now.”
Until 9 p.m., Munjal stayed back to hear his potential future staff. He said, “I was listening to the Executive Vice President, I was listening to the General Representative, I stayed for the whole thing.”
One of the most polarizing topics of the Wednesday night debate was finances and their impact on tuition. In regard to increases, Munjal said, “Everyone can have their debates about the fees. We are in a deficit, and there is so much money in USAC that’s not used. Play with the money. Once we have a little bit of money, then you can do the fee increase.”
Munjal emphasized that students should not need to fear financial troubles in the midst of completing their academics. He added, “I don’t want to increase a single dollar until we figure things out…We are all students. Who are my constituents? The regents, the administration or my students?” Munjal has heard his possible future constituents and incorporated their concerns into his campaign and verbal commitments during the debate.
In between debates and mapping out campaign propositions, Munjal found pockets of time to connect with constituents and enshrine the real faces of USAC—the students.
USAC voting opened May 8 at 8 a.m. and will end May 15 at 12 p.m. The results will be announced that evening at 7 p.m.
